My Writing Process

When people talk about how someone writes they speak of pantser and outliners. Everyone falls somewhere within this spectrum. The extreme side of pantsing is where someone writes, not knowing where you’re going or where you’re headed. All the way on the other side is outliners. They research and detail everything that will happen before a words of the story is written.

Me, I’m a combination of both, which I believe is where most fall. I’m by far an expert, I’m just telling you how I work through my process.

First, a spark of an idea occurs. I may be watching tv, reading an article, spot something online or even casually talking to someone. However it comes, I make sure I write it done. Yes I’m one of those forgetful people. Ideas, thoughts, images come and go quickly and if one gets my attention, it has to be written.

Once that spark lights up and I think, (sometimes out loud). “That would make a good story.” I write one or two sentences, at times up to a paragraph. Whatever it takes to get the main concept down. 

Next, I normally let the idea stew for a while to make sure the story sticks and keeps my interest. The scenes will develop and I see them in play out in my mind.

Then, I will sit down and write. I write everything I can think about. It could end up only being a few pages or as many as a hundred. As long as the entire story is down from beginning to end. I don’t worry about chapters or the progression of the plot. I write the scene and decide where all those go later.

Finally, at this point is when I outline. I open an excel spreadsheet and plug in the information of each scene. I can now see where I am and where I need to go. I brainstorm and come up with more issues that will happen to my characters or scene to move the issue forward and eventually bring resolve.

Everyone has their own process and as you learn, your process may change. It’s okay, it’s natural. When I first started, I wrote. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just getting the words on the page. 

I realized I needed to be more organized so I did what I knew and opened excel. That's when I was able to see the plot points and work to make sure I was keeping the tension interesting.

Writing is a learning process. Keep writing and keep reading.

First Book

I'm so excited! I hit publish on my first ever self published book. It was scary, exciting and my stomach hurt for a while before and after. But I did it and happy I did.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C29M2N4?ref_=pe_2427780_160035660

I've worked on Healing for three years, learning how to construct an interesting story.

The description is below:

Widowed mother of two teenagers, Allison Behr, cannot let go of her dead husband’s memory. Life is flat. Work isn’t stimulating. The only reason she tries is for her children. She is resolved to be alone for the rest of her life dreaming of the day she can hold her love in her arms again. To her frustration, even her dreams are telling her to move on. Divorcee Trent Urbane, has supported his high school crush through her mourning from a distance. After a vivid dream, he thinks it’s time for a second chance. When a business trip takes him to her area, he drops in to see if they can pick up where they left off years before. 
However, Trent’s past doesn’t want them to have a future. His ex-wife wants him back and she’ll do anything to make that happen. Even eliminate the competitionThe idea for this book came to me when I thought about a a man who loved his woman so much he'd try to help her move on. Then I thought about a hurtle for Trent and decided to torture them both with an ex-wife that's on the extreme side. Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C29M2N4?ref_=pe_2427780_160035660

Hidden Door

I've had many dreams through the years. I'm in my home and find a hidden door. 

This door opens into an unimaginably large part of my home I never knew was there. It's always so much bigger than the house I'm in, seriously it's huge.

It's like this part of the house was forgotten. It has furniture and nick-nacks of all kinds. I go through it and explore the many facets of this hidden world. 

There are many rooms to go through. Some small and some big, some are more modern and others look like they'd been forgotten a hundred years ago. Even swimming pools, libraries and full court gyms.

                                          

Some times it's completely empty but other times people are going about their own business.

Not too long ago I got the idea while talking about these dreams with a friend at work, for the spark of a story idea. I can't decide which direction I'll take yet. I could go with stepping into a different dimension or could go in a detective direction. Maybe I'll go with a secret society. 

The possibilities are endless.

Unheard

Unheard

My heart is heavy with the knowledge that my opinions don’t matter.

       I think, I’m ignored.

       I study, I’m told, learn something else.

       I hope, I’m told, don’t bother.

My heart suffers with the knowledge my actions don’t matter.

       I walk, I’m told, that’s not enough.

       I climb, I’m told, that should be done a different way.

       I run, I’m told, you should have been better.

               

My heart aches with the knowledge my words don’t matter.

       I whisper, I’m not heard.

       I speak, I’m told, it’s not that way.

       I scream, I’m told, you’re wrong.

My heart bleeds with the knowledge that I have…

       Never been…

       Never can be…

       Never will be…

                    …good enough.

        

My Writing Time

I’m still fairly new to writing. I have several stories I'm working on and one that is from start to finish but don't feel it ready to be released out into the world yet. I've been writing for about five years but being married with six kids and two grand kids, it makes it difficult to focus.

As soon as I walk in the door my 'kids' swarm. And my husband is there in the mix too. Most of time I don’t bother to even bring out my laptop till everyone is in bed or it looks like this…

Add a full time job and that’s even less time to spend in my imagination. I'm lucky enough to have a job that in my down time I can write but that down time is short.



After everyone is in bed it’s time for me to have some quality writing time. 

That's what it should look like... but I'd say what's below is what normally happens...

I'm tired when everyone else finally goes to bed. Going to bed before the crack of dawn so I can function at work is the grown up thing to do. So that's what I do. 

Some day I might have the time and quiet I need to write a full book within a year. For now I squeeze in the words when I can and spend the time with my family that they need from me.

Writing Contests

I’ve been writing for about five years now and didn’t know about all the wonderful contest that are out there. Some of them cost money and can get pricey but a lot of them are free. Thanks to my writing buddy Aften, http://aftenbrookszymanski.blogspot.com/ she introduced me to them.

                                

 

I entered my first contest the beginning of this year. I didn’t get picked by a mentor but it was fun to watch the twitter feed and snag up all the useful info people posted.

 

I entered the most resent contest this month, Pitchwars, and have been twitter stalking. The writing community is one of the best and most up lifting that I have ever come across. Everyone is encouraging and willing to help where they can.

via GIPHY
 

Whenever I need a boost, for whatever reason, I know where to go. My biggest obstacle is getting over my extreme shyness and reaching out to all the wonderful people.
 

I’ve spent a lot of my time trying to see if a mentor posts something about my book. But they love to be vague and you’re just not sure.
 

 

For most writers, the goal in these contests is to be picked by a mentor and get two months of invaluable feedback.

via GIPHY
 

For me, at this point in my writing career, I’d like to get a request for more pages. If I can get that, then I’d know my submission is interesting enough to warrant a second look by someone with far more experience and knowledge.
 

But, not getting a request won’t stop me. I’ll continue to read, learn and improve my writing so that the next contest I’ll be that much closer to getting the request I desire so much.

 

via GIPHY

Grief

In my community we recently had a tragedy. During a community activity, a small plane accident took the lives of two people. One of the men was the brother to my daughter’s best friend. The situation reminded me of something that happened when I was a teen.

During a combined church activity one of the leaders was killed while snow tubing. I don’t remember much of the events, but I do remember a lot of tears and when we were being ushered out of the mountains we had to pass the site. The snow was stained red. The other leaders tried to shield us from it but the red couldn’t be hidden.

My hope for this accident is that everyone at the scene is found and talked to. They always tell everyone that a grief counselor is available but not everyone looks for help. Some sit on the side lines trying to hide in the background while drowning in their grief.

In my situation, I was new to town. Not everyone had accepted me yet and I didn’t feel like I belonged yet. The young woman’s leader that had died was the mother of a guy in my class but I didn’t know her well.

For some reason, I took the death pretty hard. Most likely because it was the first time I had been near it. I walked around in a fog. I didn’t know how to process the events and it wore on me. No one came to talk to me. I wasn’t connected closely to the family. There was no reason for me to be sad. But I was.

A few days later, I had a very vivid dream. To this day, I haven’t forgotten -

I was in my church, in the gym. There are rows of chairs facing the stage and I’m walking down the isle separating the chairs in two. The entire room was dark but the stage was lit up. I look around the room at the different people sitting. Most were kids from my ward and their families.

As I get closer to the front I spot my classmate sitting with his family staring at the stage. They all held each other and cried. I stood to the side of them, trying to come up with something comforting to say. As always, I come up short and stand awkwardly.

“How would you rather have me die?”

 

I turned towards the voice and saw the woman that had died laying on the stage in a beautiful white dress. She appeared to glow from the spot light that I don’t know where the source was. I start to cry. “I’m so sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?”

“Because you’re here. You were taken from your family.” I look back at my classmate and locked eyes with him. My heart broke for him and I turned back to his mom.

“How would you have rather had me die?”

I was baffled why she would ask or even care what I thought. “You wouldn’t be dead.” I stared into her non blinking eyes.

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“Any other way.”

“But how?”

“Fine, you would have died in a peaceful manner. Maybe in your sleep, I don’t know.”

“Thanks.” She went silent but I knew she wasn’t done. “I want you to know, I’m fine. I’m at peace. You don’t need to be sad for me."

I sit up in bed and use my blanket to mop the tears I’d spilled while sleeping. I’ve had many vivid dreams in my life and this is one that shook me to my bones. I got out of bed and went into the bathroom on shaky legs and splashed some water on my face hoping to wash the sadness away.

Even though I wasn’t connected closely to her, I was deeply affected by the experience. Luckily for me I had a supportive family. My mom found me in the bathroom where I was crying. I was able to talk to her and work through it.